Intel submits Proton patches to enable XMX-accelerated XeSS on Linux
Four pull requests cover wine, vkd3d-proton, DXVK and Proton, with a builtin libxess.dll routing XeSS D3D12 calls to Linux.
Intel has submitted code directly to Valve to enable XMX-accelerated XeSS under Proton, delivered as four pull requests spanning wine, vkd3d-proton, DXVK and Proton, according to gamingonlinux.com. Developer Damian Tomczak opened an issue on Valve's Wine GitHub page to add a builtin libxess.dll to Proton.
The builtin libxess.dll forwards XeSS D3D12 calls to the Linux XeSS library libxess.so, allowing XeSS to use XMX under Proton rather than the slower fallback path. D3D12 objects are converted to Vulkan through vkd3d-proton's interop interface.
The DLL is only used when Proton finds a libxess.so, first in its contrib directory and then in the system library path, with the path passed in XESS_LIB_OVERRIDE.
Merge order
The Proton pull request bumps the other three submodules and is intended to go in last. No date has been given for when the changes will land in a Proton release.
Quick answers
What does the Proton libxess.dll do?
It forwards XeSS D3D12 calls to the Linux XeSS library libxess.so, so XeSS can use XMX under Proton instead of the slower fallback path.
How many pull requests make up the work?
Four, covering wine, vkd3d-proton, DXVK and Proton; the Proton one bumps the other three submodules and should go in last.